My experiences with grocery store Matcha options — for the purposes of making Matcha Lattes

Hey there, tea drinkers! I hope you’re having a great week so far. In today’s post I’m going to talk a little about my experiences with Matcha green tea powder purchased from the grocery store (or supermarket). I love Matcha lattes and it is the way I consume all my Matcha at the moment; I’ve been intending to buy a nice Matcha bowl and Chasen so that I can also enjoy matcha in a purer form, but alas I have yet to do it. I have a matcha latte most days (there have been some time stretches where I made them every day), and therefore I pretty much always need to keep some Matcha on hand. Over the past few years Matcha has become more popular here in the US, and it seems to have risen to the status of trending health food; I’ve also seen it marketed as a “superfood.” And it seems many grocers/supermarkets have caught on and now stock their shelves with some form of Matcha. I often prefer to just go out to my local grocery store or supermarket and grab things anyways, rather than ordering online (I’m a bit old school that way), so over the past few years I’ve taken the opportunity to try out a few brands of Matcha available in my local grocery stores, which I’ve used as the base for my homemade Matcha Lattes. So, here we go.

matcha LOVE – stone ground green tea powder

The first brand of matcha I ever tried from the grocery store was matcha LOVE. There are two variants, the usucha and the organic, both of which come in cute little tins with 0.7 oz of tea powder.

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I’ve had both, but I typically opted for the usucha because it is a little cheaper than the organic, and to be honest, when I tried the organic I didn’t note a significant difference in flavor or quality. I’ve seen both at Kroger and Sprouts in the past, but it looks neither stocks the usucha anymore. This is a relatively recent change, and luckily for me, I still have a couple of tins of the usucha that I snagged on closeout at Kroger. I’ve had good experiences with this matcha, and I might even love it for lattes 😉 . When I crack open the tins I always find a nice dark vibrant green tea powder that makes for a great matcha latte. However, at a price range of $12.99 (Kroger) to $14.99 (Sprouts) for 0.7 oz for the organic option ($18.56-21.40 / oz) (the only one still stocked in the grocery stores I mentioned), per ounce matcha LOVE is the second priciest of the options I’ll mention here; however, it is probably worth noting that the usucha usually ran a couple of dollars less than the organic, making it a little less pricey.

Mighty Leaf – Organic Matcha Green Tea

The second brand of matcha I tried from the grocery store was Mighty Leaf’s organic macha green tea powder. This is one I tried after moving to Tennessee and I started doing a lot of my grocery shopping at the nearby Publix; I’ve since also seen it at World Market and Sprouts. Initially, this Mighty Leaf matcha was the only one available on shelf at my local Publix, so I decided to pick some up after my previous matcha supply had dried up. It comes with 1.5 oz of tea powder, which is in a sealed foil packet inside a tin.

It’s a little funny because the tin is much larger than what is needed to actually hold the tea powder after opening the foil pack, but that’s a minor detail. I was quite pleased with this tea powder as a latte matcha and I’ve continued to have good experiences with it; I’ve gone through many tins. The powder is always a nice green color and makes great lattes. And comparably, the price per ounce (~$9.99) is quite low, making it a great value.

Aiya – Matcha Ceremonial Grade

The third brand of matcha I tried from the grocery store was the Aiya Ceremonial Grade. This is another one that I first saw at my local Publix when I lived in Tennessee; I’ve since seen it at Sprouts as well. I had been getting the Mighty Leaf brand for a while, which was the only one in stock for a time. When the Publix added this one to the shelf I was curious, so I went ahead and grabbed a tin one day. It comes in a little tin with 30 g (~ 1 oz) of tea powder.

I was also quite pleased with this tea powder and overall had a good experience with it. The powder was a nice green color and mades great lattes. Although I was happy this matcha, I typically still opted for the Mighty Leaf matcha because of the lower price point, and at least in my experience, similar fitness as a latte matcha. At the grocery stores where I’ve seen this Aiya tin with a price of $16.99, making the price per ounce (also roughly $16.99) the third most expensive per ounce of the options mentioned in this post.

PURE LEAF – matcha PURE

The fourth brand of matcha I tried from the grocery store was the PURE LEAF matcha PURE which comes in individual pre-portioned sachets/packets. This is one that I found at Kroger. This is another matcha option that I tried out of curiosity. It comes in a plastic container with 12 sachets of matcha, totaling 0.4 oz or 10 g of tea powder.

The matcha powder was a nice green and made for good matcha lattes. The sachets are kind of nice in that the match is pre-apportioned, and they are convenient for travelling (no need to travel with your whole tin of matcha). However, at $8.99, the per ounce price of the matcha actually comes out to $22.47, making it the most expensive one listed here.

Ujido – Matcha Green Tea Powder

The fifth, and final, brand of matcha I tried from the grocery store was the Ujido matcha green tea powder. This is one that I first picked up at Sprouts as a 4 oz bag.

I grabbed a bag of this matcha on sale (I think it about $10 or so), both out of curiousity and because of the relative deal for that amount of matcha powder. This matcha was definitely a lower quality powder with a darker, more brownish, coloration. It just made okay lattes; they were passable, but I could certainly tell a difference in flavor as compared to the other matcha powders I’ve mentioned here. However, at a pricepoint of $19.99 for the 4 oz bag (current full price at Sprouts) and about $4.99/oz, it can make a lot of lattes if money is tight or you are otherwise pinching pennies. However, I think this one would be best relegated to use in applications like baking and smoothies.

Summary

Overall, I’ve had good experiences with the grocery store options that I’ve tried. However, as you may have noticed, I’ve tended to stay away from the premixed latte packets because I like to be able to choose what sweetener to use and how much to add, and I think you can usually get better quality and price if you buy the pure matcha; I might try some in the future just out of curiosity. Here are some summary points:

These are five matcha brands that I’ve tried and that were purchased from a grocery store:

• matcha LOVE – stone ground green tea powder
• Mighty Leaf – organic matcha green tea
• Aiya – matcha ceremonial grade
• PURE LEAF – matcha PURE
• Ujido – matcha green tea powder

Here they are from least to most expensive in terms of price per ounce:

1. Ujido – matcha green tea powder – $4.99
2. Mighty Leaf – organic matcha green tea – $9.99
3. Aiya – matcha ceremonical grade – $16.99
4. matcha LOVE – stone ground green tea powder – organic – $18.56-21.40
5. PURE LEAF – matcha PURE – $22.47

These are my current overall feelings about each one as a latte matcha:

• matcha LOVE – stone ground green tea powder: great quality, but a bit pricey (organic)
• Mighty Leaf – organic matcha green tea: the best combination of quality and value
• Aiya – matcha ceremonial grade – great quality and not a too terribly pricey
• PURE LEAF – matcha PURE – good quality and good for travel, but very pricey
• Ujido – matcha green tea powder – does okay if money is tight, but probably better suited for baking and smoothies

That’s it!

Thanks for reading! Although your experience will likely differ from mine, I hope this post is helpful in your quest for matcha latte bliss.

Do you have any notes of your own that you’d like to share? Or maybe you have a reccomendation for a matcha to try. Drop a line down in the comments to let me know.

That’s it, tea drinkers. Until next time, keep enjoying the wondrous taste of tea! — Blake – the tea drinker behind Blake’s Tea Journal

Cover Photo by Anna Tukhfatullina Food Photographer/Stylist from Pexels